Never heard it coming....lucky escort.Anyone had this happen?

Bubblehead1980 · 11-11-09, 02:41 PM

TMo 1.7 100 realism.

Never heard it coming....

8th war patrol of USS Drum....August 1943....near Wewak, New Guinea.

En****ered convoy with two large passenger ships(Horai Marus) and 3 fubuki DD's escorting, moving at 17 knots for Rabaul.Daylight, flat seas.Move in for attack, 2200 yards was a close as could get for a good shot.Fired 4 Mark 14's at first ship, set up to fire second, the Maru was skilled, spotted wakes pretty soon, slowed down enough so obvious torpedos would pass in front, prepared to fire last two at the first maru when noticed lead escort was close, decided to save my fish for another try, dropped scope and headed down.

Pinging started, then stopped as I passed 250 feet.Leveled boat off at 300 feet, when pinging started again and switched to short scale.DD roared overhead, went to ahead flank to get out from under, then all stop, left full rudder, left the momentum carry rest of the way, usual evasion method that works very well.Soon charges exploding, external cam disabled but could tell they were well above, guessing at 250 feet.Other escort came roaring in pinging, ahead flank to get out from under, more charges, closer but not at my depth, ordered 350 feet for safety.Then two more, not too close.Then suddenly BAMMMM, lights breaking flashing, 100 hull damage, nearly every system on boat destroyed.Blew ballast which gave an upangle but heavy flooding began to pull me down.

I never even heard the explosion, mustve been a lucky charge that literally got a direct hit, mustve fallen right on top of me and blew up.I've had close charges caused heavy damage but always heard the explosion first, but it was prob further away.This one falls in line with what i read, if you didnt hear the explosion, you knew it was TOO close.Well this one was.

Began this career in new construction in Feb 42 and made it this far.Violated my no reload rule once when a plane got me during an approach on convoy.Stuck if i want to do it again.This was no fluke, just luck of the draw.Really want to keep going to the end though.Maybe because i have soft spot for the Drum(live near it, visited plenty of times)

Anyone else had this happen? Never heard the charge, just BAMM..damge noises, water and steam pouring in, damage reports.At that point wish I had external cam on, so could have seen how close and where it was.My guess is due to everything on bridge watch and conning tower being DESTROYED, charge landed amidships, on conning tower.

11-11-09, 02:41 PM	#1
Bubblehead1980 Navy Seal Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Florida USA Posts: 7,105 Downloads: 605 Uploads: 44	Never heard it coming....lucky escort.Anyone had this happen? TMo 1.7 100 realism. Never heard it coming.... 8th war patrol of USS Drum....August 1943....near Wewak, New Guinea. En****ered convoy with two large passenger ships(Horai Marus) and 3 fubuki DD's escorting, moving at 17 knots for Rabaul.Daylight, flat seas.Move in for attack, 2200 yards was a close as could get for a good shot.Fired 4 Mark 14's at first ship, set up to fire second, the Maru was skilled, spotted wakes pretty soon, slowed down enough so obvious torpedos would pass in front, prepared to fire last two at the first maru when noticed lead escort was close, decided to save my fish for another try, dropped scope and headed down. Pinging started, then stopped as I passed 250 feet.Leveled boat off at 300 feet, when pinging started again and switched to short scale.DD roared overhead, went to ahead flank to get out from under, then all stop, left full rudder, left the momentum carry rest of the way, usual evasion method that works very well.Soon charges exploding, external cam disabled but could tell they were well above, guessing at 250 feet.Other escort came roaring in pinging, ahead flank to get out from under, more charges, closer but not at my depth, ordered 350 feet for safety.Then two more, not too close.Then suddenly BAMMMM, lights breaking flashing, 100 hull damage, nearly every system on boat destroyed.Blew ballast which gave an upangle but heavy flooding began to pull me down. I never even heard the explosion, mustve been a lucky charge that literally got a direct hit, mustve fallen right on top of me and blew up.I've had close charges caused heavy damage but always heard the explosion first, but it was prob further away.This one falls in line with what i read, if you didnt hear the explosion, you knew it was TOO close.Well this one was. Began this career in new construction in Feb 42 and made it this far.Violated my no reload rule once when a plane got me during an approach on convoy.Stuck if i want to do it again.This was no fluke, just luck of the draw.Really want to keep going to the end though.Maybe because i have soft spot for the Drum(live near it, visited plenty of times) Anyone else had this happen? Never heard the charge, just BAMM..damge noises, water and steam pouring in, damage reports.At that point wish I had external cam on, so could have seen how close and where it was.My guess is due to everything on bridge watch and conning tower being DESTROYED, charge landed amidships, on conning tower.